Suomen Soliloquies

We’ve had classes for two weeks now and I still can’t say I know my schedule. I probably never will because it changes completely every day and will continue to change throughout the semester. This constant change has been an adjustment for all of my classmates in the program but none of us is quite sure why it works that way. In one of my classes that hasn’t started yet we will be looking at the Finnish education system and visiting schools in the area but I feel I am getting a taste for it already through the classes I have had already. It felt like a good time to give a brief introduction into what we’ve been told so far. After all, the Finnish education system is why I’m here. Our classes this semester are all laying the foundation for research, which is one of the biggest difference between teachers in the US and teachers in Finland. All teachers here are required to have a master’s degree (except kindergarten teachers) and all teachers are trained extensively on

Well, kind of. We had orientation three days this week and had a chance to meet our fellow LLEES classmates. The program is truly international with students from Taiwan, Germany, China, Korea, Greece, Basque, Bangladesh, Iran and Mexico. There are only twelve of us right now but there are two students from Ghana and one from Nigeria who haven’t been able to make it due to visa issues. Besides being international, the areas of interest vary a great deal so it will be fascinating learning about everyone’s thesis topics and professional experiences. The inside of the cathedral Life on campus has changed dramatically. When I first got to Turku, you would see a few tourists hanging around the cathedral, which is on the edge of the University of Turku and Åbo Academy campuses (there are three universities in Turku, the third is Turku School of Applied Sciences). Now the area has throngs of students walking to and from the city center to the universities. Coming from a unive